Ocala Attorney Adds Variety To Race For Circuit Judgeship

June 16, 1994|By Jill Jorden Spitz of The Sentinel Staff

Barbara Gurrola has tried several careers in the past 30 years.

Now, she's going for the career she's eyed for more than a decade: judge.

The 51-year-old attorney announced recently that she will run for a newly created circuit judgeship. The person who wins the post will spend one workday of each week in Lake County and the other four in Hernando County.

In entering the race, Gurrola joins a growing field of candidates running in the 5th Judicial

Circuit, which includes Lake, Hernando, Marion, Citrus and Sumter counties.

They include William Law, a Lake County judge since 1989; Bill Lackay, a Bushnell attorney with 17 years civil and criminal trial experience; and Paul Hawkes, a Crystal River attorney who serves in the Florida House of Representatives.

Gurrola, who lives in Lady Lake but has a law practice in Ocala, said her decision to enter the race was easy. She knew during her first year of law school that she wanted to be a judge, and has never wavered from her goal, she said.

''I would like to be able to make decisions based on the problems people have,'' she said. ''By my experience - what I am and what I've done - I believe I have become an understanding person, but also a very fair person.''

Gurrola was born and raised in Indiana. She earned her bachelor's degree from Ball State University in 1965 and her master's degree in education from Northern Illinois University in 1974.

After college, she spent more than 11 years teaching junior high and high school English and speech, then went into business with her husband, Rudy. Together, the couple sold real estate, opened an advertising company and bred and raised racehorses - the career that brought them to Florida.

After the youngest of the Gurrolas' four children left for college, Barbara Gurrola entered law school at Nova University Law Center in Fort Lauderdale. She graduated in 1988.

Gurrola went to work for the State Attorney's office in Ocala while still in law school, and worked as an assistant state attorney for 2 1/2 years after graduation. She opened her own firm in 1991 and handles both civil and criminal cases.

Although she is relatively new to the legal profession, Gurrola said her extensive experience gives her a broad understanding of the working world and would make her a good judge.

''I was out there doing a number of different things,'' she said. ''I know what it's like to meet a payroll, to hire employees. I have an understanding of what people go through.''